If you are one of the millions who jumped straight up Tuesday morning to sign up for one of the most anticipated events in recent memory, then you're probably also one of the millions who spent the day in an angst-driven mental fit of hopelessness and anger.

I'm not talking about Obamacare, which is a horrid mess of its own, but instead “Grand Theft Auto V” online.

Even four days since its release, tons of fans have been grinding themselves into the dirt with frustration at not being able to get the game to load, or get past the now dreaded tutorial race at beginning.

To be fair, a great many had little problem getting the online game to work and are playing fine, with only a few minor glitches. So it is not the complete disaster that online trolls have been claiming.

Yet developer Rockstar Games must bear the blame for what has so far been a major embarrassment.

The company's servers were overwhelmed when online launched, and Rockstar was unprepared to the vast number of gamers clamoring to play.

“For those trying to get into GTA Online today,” the company said, “please bear w/us on some day one tech connection issues that we're working to stabilize asap,”

That was from Rockstar's Twitter account shortly after the launch, which has been posting frequent updates for customers.

This is where the game-maker deserves big props. Crisis control like Rockstar's has rarely been seen from a game company when in a mess of this size.

On its support website, Rockstar began listing common problems customers have reported along with progress updates in fixing those problems. Developers have created patches to fix the online mess, the first one for the PS3, released early Friday morning. A patch for the Xbox 360 was reported to release later Friday.

Once it does work, and by today it should be, the wait and frustration will have been well worth it.

The style of Grand Theft Auto game play being what it is, when playing with a group of real people, well, the fun is an exponential super nova.

Online multiplayer takes place after the conclusion of the single-player story. You create a character and then are transported to Los Santos to begin your ride as a San Andreas criminal.

Rockstar describes it as “a fully realized and living world for multiple players that will continue to grow and take shape over time.”

There are more than 500 missions at any one time for players to indulge in. They will be a mix of solo missions and group jobs.

These missions include robberies, various heists to plan and execute, hijacking money trucks, races against fellow players and attacking gang hideouts.

Your character increases skills the same way the story-mode characters do, by doing various tasks.

This plays into the planning of group heists. You might be an insane driver but a horrible shot, so in your crew you become the go-to getaway driver.

As you complete jobs, you gain reputation points to rank up and money to buy property, aircraft, cars and more.

Other players can kill you and steal any money you have on you, so bank early and bank often. If you are worked over, you can then put a bounty on your assailant for others players to hunt.

I'm out of space and have barely touched what this game can become.

GTA online is right up there with “Call of Duty,” “Gears of War” and “Halo” when it comes to online multiplayer for a single-player console series. In fact, it may soon bypass those titles.